In its Golden Jubilee year, India’s premier power sector financier REC (Rural Electrification Corporation) Limited is pleased to announce a partnership with Valley of Words (VoW), a not-for-profit initiative of The Shivalik Hills Foundation Trust to acknowledge and promote excellence in the field of literature, including literarytranslations.
REC’s commitment to transforming lives by spreading ‘light’ across the last frontier of the country is well known. By joining hands with VoW, REC will celebrate the finest writings, both in fiction and non-fiction categories in Hindi and English as well as writings for young adults. Next year onwards, REC-VoW awards will also be offered for the best translation from Indian languages to Hindi and English.
VOW awards were introduced in the first edition of the Valley of Words in 2017, and this is the second edition of the Awards and the Festival. Last year, the Awards were won by Munawar Rana and Santosh Chaube in the Hindi Non Fiction and Fiction categories for their books Meer Aa Kar Laut Gaye, and Jal Tarang, respectively. The English Awards were won by Nitin Sathe for his book Born to Fly in the non-fiction category. The English Fiction award was received by Ms. Namita Gokhale for her work Things to Leave Behind. The Jury for English was headed by Principal Advisor to VOW, Robin Gupta and the Hindi Jury by Laxmi Shankar Bajpai.
The response to this year’s REC VOW BookAwards was overwhelming, and over 200 entries in different categories were received. Almost all the major publishers in Hindi and English sent in books published in the calendar year 2017 for the consideration of the REC VoW awards. The final winners will be announced during the 2nd Annual Awards ceremony in Dehradun on November 23rd-25th 2018.
“Celebrating our 50th year of inception by partnering with Shivalik Hills Foundation with this year’s stellar list of authors demonstrated through their work is a wonderful opportunity for REC to showcase itself as a diverse organization supporting contemporary literature and promoting vernacular language literary works.”
A spokesperson for Shivalik Hills Foundation commented: “We’re delighted to partner with REC at this year’s star-studded VoW Awards ceremony. REC’s pedigree in financial services is well known and it was great to bring them on board as the sponsors forthe REC-VoW Awards.”
The results forthe short lists are as follows:
English Fiction
• Pawan: The Flying Accountant by Sorabh Pant (Rupa)
• The Book of Chocolate Saints by Jeet Thayil (Aleph)
• A handful of sunshine byVikram Bhatt (Penguin)
• Murder in Mahim by Jerry Pinto (Speaking Tiger)
• Hari Lal and sons by Sujit Saraf (Speaking Tiger)
English Non Fiction
• Durand’s Curse: A Line across the Pathan Heart by Rajiv Dogra (Rupa)
• The Bengalis: A portrait of a community by Sudeep Chakravarti (Aleph)
• Aworld of three zeroes: the new economics of zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero net carbon emissions by Muhammad Yunus (Hachette)
• The flavour of Spice: Journeys, Recipes, Stories by Marryam H Reshi (Hachette)
• Demystifying Incarnation: Chaitanya Charan(Fingerprint )
Hindi Fiction
• Parch haiyon ka Samaysar by Kusum Ansal (Samayik Prakashan )
• Chidiya Behnon ka Bhai byAnand Harshul (Rajkamal Prakashan)
• Madaripur Junction by Balendu Dwivedi (Vani Prakashan)
• Dari hui Ladki by Gyan Prakash Vivek (Bhartiya Gyanpith )
• Sham ki Jhilmil by Govind Mishra (Kitabghar Prakashan)
Hindi Non Fiction
• Woh safar bhi tha,mukam bhi by Maitreyee Pushp (Rajkamal Prakashan)
• Adan ki Bayee Pasli by Naseera Sharma (Rajkamal Prakashan )
• Pani Ki Patkatha : Lalit Nibandh byAshtabhuj Shukal (Bhartiya Gyanpith)
• Leek se Hatkar by Shashi Shekhar (Lokchetna Prakashan)
• Premchand Ki Kahani YatraAur Bhartiyata by Kamal Kishore Goyanka
Writings for Children/Young Adults
• The Trees of Medley Gardens by Ranjit Lal ( Rupa)
• Tooth and Nail, Fur and Scale: Fantastic creatures from the Myths and Legends of India by Anupam Arunachalam (Penguin)
• The House that Spoke by Zuni Chopra (Penguin)
• Bookworms and Jelly Bellies by Ruchira Ramanujan & Ranjini Rao
• Mishti, the Mirzapuri Labrador: urf Mishthi ke Karname by Gillian Wright (Speaking Tiger)
The Festival
The Valley of Words will be held at Dehradun from 23-25 November, and will feature over 200 authors in over sixty sessions, including 27 book launches, many conversations, debates, poetry readings and twelve exhibitions, besides cultural programs and curated walks. The festival will be inaugurated by Her Excellency the Governor of Uttarakhand Baby Maurya who will also release a special rirst bay Postal cover to make the occasion. The keynote address will be delivered by Dr Bibek Debroy, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory council on the theme: Universal Learnings from Sanskrit Classics.
The REC VOW Award winners will be announced in the Inaugural session, and the Awardees will be invited to make their acceptance speeches in the penultimate session where the CM D of REC, Dr PV Ramesh Kumar will be present.
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